Earthquake damage to earth dams in Japan—maximum epicentral distance to cause damage as a function of magnitude

Small scale agricultural earth dams have been damaged by several past earthquakes. Damage to earth dams occurred at distances from the epicentre that increased in proportion to the scale of the earthquakes. On studying the damage a constant relation between the magnitude of the earthquake and maximum epicentral distance where the damage occurred was obtained. This relationship is similar to that obtained between the magnitude and the maximum epicentral distance at which liquefaction occurs. This, and the fact that earth dams which have been damaged several times due to liquefaction were near the critical epicentral distance, suggests that liquefaction of the foundation ground is the main cause of damage to earth dams.     

Decoupled seismic analysis of an earth dam

The seismic stability of an earth dam is evaluated via the decoupled displacement analysis using the accelerograms obtained by ground response analysis to compute the earthquake-induced displacements. The response analysis of the dam is carried out under both 1D and 2D conditions, incorporating the non-linear soil behaviour through the equivalent linear method. Ten artificial and five real accelerograms were used as input motions and four different depths were assumed for the bedrock.1D and 2D response analyses were in a fair agreement with the exception of the top third of the dam where only a 2D modelling of the problem could ensure that the acceleration field is properly described. The acceleration amplification ratio obtained in the 2D analyses was equal to about 2 in all the cases considered, consistently with data from real case histories.The maximum permanent displacements computed by the sliding block analysis were small, being less than 10% of the service freeboard; a satisfactory performance of the dam can then be envisaged for any of the seismic scenarios considered in the analyses.     

Estimating the orientation error of the Dahan Downhole Accelerometer using the maximum cross-correlation coefficient between the observed and synthetic waves

A new algorithm to correct the orientation error of the accelerometerat the Dahan Downhole Array, Hualien, Taiwan is developed. This algorithmconsists of three stages: (1) rotating two horizontal ground motions on thefree surface to the SH-SVdirection and SH axis offers a reference direction.(2) computing the synthetic downhole SH waves at a downhole station and (3)searching a rotation angle for downhole observation that yields a best waveformmatch between the synthetic and observed downhole seismograms. At this point, the rotated angle corresponding to the best waveform match can be considered as the orientation error. We selected five earthquakes with good data qualityfor analysis. Results show that this algorithm gives a more stable estimationthan a conventional method because it allows the selection of data from a wider time window for analyses. The estimated orientation error of the accelerometers at the Dahan Downhole Array after the 1999 reinstallation are40°, 114° and 285° at depths of 50, 100 and 200 m, respectively.     

Study of Triggering Action Between the Mani （Ms7.9） and the West Kunlun Mountains Pass （ Ms 8.1 ） Great Earthquakes and Their Dynamic Background

Based on Coulomb static stress variation, the stress trigging action of the Mani ( Ms7.9, Nov.1997) earthquake on the West Kuulun Mountains Pass (MsS.1, Nov. 2001 ) earthquake is researched. Results of different source mechanism resolutions show that a 10_3 MPa Coulomb stress due to the Mani earthquake was added to the fracture fault of the Kunlun earthquake, and this may shift the broken date to about 10 years earlier, and infer that the stress level in the crust is not low. Comparing the relationship between strong earthquake strength and frequency and earth rotation change, it is shown that the strength‘s decrease and the variation period‘ s shortening of earth rotation are important controlling factors on strong earthquake activity. This great event with Ms = 8.1 took place probably due to a gradual strengthening background of regional stress field within the Qinghai-Xizang block in the period of acceleration of change of day‘s length and stress triggering from the Mani earthquake.     

克孜尔水库大坝的面波检测

1999年 3月 15日克孜尔地震之后对克孜尔水库坝体出现的裂缝进行了面波勘探。首先介绍了面波勘探法的基本原理 ,然后通过典型剖面检测与资料处理找出异常区、带并进行解释。试验表明面波勘探法适用于克孜尔水库大坝监测     

地形变场与现代地壳垂直运动及地震活动关系初探(Ⅰ)——地形变场的计算方法和物理意义

地震与地壳形变有着密切的关系 ,但台站地倾斜资料空间连续性不好 .为此在场分析的基础上 ,利用逐步订正法将地倾斜观测资料内插到 1°× 1°的经纬度网格点 ,引入曲面总曲率的概念计算格点上的Gauss曲率 ,并推广到格点化的有限区域上得到表征曲面形态和变形强度的地表形变场 .结果表明 :该方法可以合理地弥补资料不连续的缺陷 ,并在地表形变场上捕捉到一些关键的地表形变特征 ,如地凸区、地凹区、鞍形场等 .为地震分析和预报中如何拓展和利用大范围时空信息提供了一种有益的思路 .     

Environmental governance through “Speaking Like an Indigenous State” and respatializing resources: Ethical livelihood concepts in Bolivia as versatility or verisimilitude?

This research addresses recent environmental governance in Bolivia through its relations to indigeneity and respatializations. It introduces and develops the concept of “speaking like an indigenous state” to examine the Bolivian state’s recent use of a pair of indigenous linguistic concepts, Living Well and Earth Mother, representing the identities of citizens and their rights to resources and livelihoods. State relations to indigenous social movements highlight the use of Living Well and Earth Mother concepts through accommodation, resistance, and protaganism. Six active issues of environmental governance are examined: (1) climate change and justice movement; (2) agrarian reform, agrobiodiversity, and food justice; (3) water resources; (4) indigenous territories; (5) Protected Areas; and (6) extractive industries (mining, hydrocarbons). The usages of Living Well and Earth Mother show versatility as they have been mobilized in the respatializing of the politics and social-power dynamics of environmental issues at scales of the state, global and international institutions, and community and local levels. Analysis also reveals deployment of Living Well and Earth Mother that is discursively influential and yet conceptually reduced and unevenly applied, thus suggesting a characteristic of verisimilitude. My analysis determines that respatialization at various levels, including territorial transitions of sub-national regional spaces, are associated with the heightened articulation of environmental governance through indigeneity and “speaking like an indigenous state” amid resource nationalism. Linkages and logics operating within this conjuncture differ from the prevailing interpretation of the Bolivian state’s use of Living Well and Earth Mother as solely an unwitting contradiction or instrumentalist camouflage.     

The International Laser Ranging Service and its support for IGGOS

The International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) was established in September 1998 as a service within the IAG to support programs in geodetic, geophysical, and lunar research activities and to provide data products to the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) in support of its prime objectives. Now in operation for 5 years, the ILRS develops: (1) the standards and specifications necessary for product consistency and (2) the priorities and tracking strategies required to maximize network efficiency. The service collects, merges, analyzes, archives and distributes satellite and lunar laser ranging data to satisfy a variety of scientific, engineering, and operational needs and encourages the application of new technologies to enhance the quality, quantity, and cost effectiveness of its data products. The ILRS works with: (1) the global network to improve station performance; (2) new satellite missions in the design and building of retroreflector targets to maximize data quality and quantity and (3) science programs to optimize scientific data yield. The ILRS Central Bureau maintains a comprehensive web site as the primary vehicle for the distribution of information within the ILRS community. The site, which can be accessed at: http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov is also available at mirrored sites at the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) in Tokyo and the European Data Center (EDC) in Munich.During the last 2 years, the ILRS has addressed very important challenges: (1) data from the field stations are now submitted hourly and made available immediately through the data centers for access by the user community; (2) tracking on low satellites has been significantly improved through the sub-daily issue of predictions, drag functions, and the real-time exchange of time biases; (3) analysis products are now submitted in SINEX format for compatibility with the other space geodesy techniques; (4) the Analysis Working Group is heavily engaged in Pilot Projects as it works toward an ILRS “standard” global solution and (5) SLR has significantly increased its participation in the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) activity, which is important to the success of IGGOS.     

A Possible Detection of the 26 December 2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman Islands Earthquake with Solution Products of the International GNSS Service

The main goal of this work is to critically review the IGS solution products and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) in order to demonstrate their potential to contribute to studies of large earthquakes such as the one that devastated Southeast Asia on December 26th, 2004. In view of a possible detection of the Mw 9.0 Sumatra-Andaman Islands Earthquake of December 26, 2004, position solutions, ranging from intervals of years to one second, of four International GNSS Service (IGS) stations within 3000 km of the epicenter were examined. The IGS combined, cumulative solution product (IGS04P51), consisting of epoch and station velocity solutions and based on data spans of several years prior to the earthquake, was used as a reference. Four IGS combined weekly position solutions (igs04P1301-4), two weeks before and after the earthquake, were utilized for the weekly solution resolution. PPP static and kinematic solutions with IGS Final combined orbits and clocks were used for the mean daily and instantaneous 5-min and 1-sec epoch solutions, respectively. The most significant changes, detected by both weekly and daily solutions occurred in longitude. The nearest IGS station ntus, about 1000 km east of the epicenter, moved westward about 15 mm, while the more distant Indian station iisc (∼ 2300 km NW from the epicenter), shifted about 15 mm eastward. In spite of position errors caused by interpolation of the 5-min IGS clocks, the 1-sec solutions, based on separate data sets, available only for two stations (iisc, dgar), still showed seismic surface waves, in particular at the Indian station iisc. Precise daily IGS combined polar motion and length-of-day products, after correcting for the atmospheric effects, also likely detected, statistically significant, anomalistic excitations on December 26, 2004 that could be caused by this great earthquake.     

预测华北地区年度地震趋势的支持向量机分类方法

以太阳黑子数、地球自转速率变化数据和全球7级以上地震应变释放量作为预测因子,使用支持向量机分类方法建模预测中国华北地区年度地震强度,预测准确率为0.93,表明该方法具有较好的预测效果.